


Small Blue Horseless Carriage

by merryghoul



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Hurt/sick character isn't quite lucid, Non-Sexual Xeno, Physical Weakness, Taken Off Guard By Small Displays Of Affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:17:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: The Doctor makes a mistake in coming to 1709 London expecting a frost fair.





	Small Blue Horseless Carriage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ruuger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/gifts).



The Doctor finally made good on his promise to invite Clara to one of those frost fairs he wanted to go to back while dodging the Skovox Blitzer at Coal Hill School. He thought there was one in 1709; he directed the TARDIS to that time. The TARDIS kept changing the dates for him—1683? 1716?—but the Doctor insisted. 1709 it was. 

There were a few people moving across the frozen Thames. Thinking it was a group of people setting up for the next frost fair, the Doctor walked towards them, hoping to see if and where their booths were going to be erected on the ice. 

The Doctor heard himself say “Excuse me? Excuse me?” before feeling his right foot go through the ice. The rest of his body followed. His arms pointed downward. His hands were outstretched and pointing away from him. He found himself gasping for air, and he noticed his eyes were shut.

Drowning wasn’t new to the Doctor. He’d been on opposite ends of it—being drowned and rescuing his friends from drowning. Drowning still had its risks, but the Doctor was confident he could survive being drowned, sometimes. It was the pain that followed he wanted to avoid. 

The Doctor went into a trance state, knowing it would increase his chances of survival. He turned on his respiratory bypass system. It allowed him to retain oxygen through the tubes in his body used for respiratory functions. He floated back up to the top and grabbed the ice. Using his forearms, the Doctor pulled himself out of of the ice while kicking his feet in the water. When he was out of the ice, he rolled out of it.

Coming out of his trance state, the Doctor felt a burning sensation in his tubes. _I must have inhaled some water by accident in my trance state,_ he thought. He knew his limited supply of oxygen had run out. He was cold, and, unusually for him, he felt sleepy. He laid out on the ice, hoping to be on a thick piece that wouldn’t sink him lower into the Thames.

 

Some people on the ice rushed over to the Doctor, being careful not to fall into the ice. Clara, who was also running towards the Doctor, was unable to get to them before they could. She ended up following the Doctor as he was taken to a stairwell close to the Thames.

“Someone call a doctor,” a bystander called out. 

“No!” Clara was out of breath by the time she arrived to where the Doctor was. “I can save his life without calling for a doctor.”

“How?” another bystander said in a sarcastic tone.

Clara pointed at the second bystander. “I need you to press on his chest where I tell you to press.”

The bystander walked to Clara. “Are you sure? If I can call a doctor, I can get him to give this man a—“

Clara tilted the Doctor’s head upwards, opening his mouth. She pointed at a spot on the Doctor’s heart. “Put one hand on top of the other and them place them right here.”

The bystander sighed and crouched beside the Doctor. “Okay.”

Clara placed her hands over the Doctor’s right heart. “When I say ‘push,’ you push down. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Clara and the bystander pushed down on the Doctor’s hearts for thirty movements. They took a break so Clara could pinch the Doctor’s nose and administer breaths to his lungs. 

It didn’t take long for the Doctor to be revived. Once he could breathe again, he opened his eyes and weakly said “Clara?”

“How did you know this would work?” the bystander asked Clara.

“Um...I’m an inventor. I invent medical techniques.”

 

With the help of other bystanders, Clara was able to get the Doctor inside what Clara called their small blue horseless carriage to the bystanders.

“Get me to the console, Clara,” the Doctor said once they were inside the TARDIS. “There’s no way you can walk me to the Zero Room. You’re round. You’re not that physically strong.”

“I can try.”

“No, Clara, don’t try. The TARDIS made me a wheelchair millenniums ago. I’ll use that to wheel myself into the Zero Room.”

“I need to go back home. I need to finish up grading some class assignments.”

“Well, then, take the TARDIS to your flat. You’ve had no problems with the TARDIS inside your flat before.”

“What if someone notices I have a replica police box inside my flat?”

“You said you were an inventor who invents things. Just say you’ve taken up making replicas. I’m sure a lot of people won’t mind.”

Clara sighed as the Doctor hit a few buttons on the console. An electric wheelchair came into the console room. The Doctor sat in the electric wheelchair and had it wheel him into the Zero Room.

 

The Doctor woke up in Clara’s bed wearing his usual clothing. He was covered in blankets. He called out for Clara. “I have a Zero Room,” he said when she appeared in her bedroom. “You didn’t need to put me in your bed.”

“The TARDIS didn’t want you locked inside while you’re recovering. She brought you out in your wheelchair for me to take you outside. And your body was cold.”

“Yes, it naturally gets cold when I get injured. I don’t need all these blankets.” The Doctor started throwing off the blankets and throwing them on the ground. “You’re slowing my healing processes.”

“Sorry.” Clara started picking up the blankets.

“Wait. I should give you an apology. But I’m not sure how to phrase it. I know you start with ‘I’m sorry.’”

“You’re sorry for how you’ve treated me, even though I saved your life during a time when CPR wasn’t invented yet?”

“That’s a lot to say.”

“You know what they _were_ going to give you, right?”

“Oh, I’m aware. And I’m much too active to be slowed down by what they were going to give me.”

“You’re sorry I didn’t know what to do after the TARDIS kicked you out, and I did my best to make you comfortable?”

“I’m sorry, Clara. I shouldn’t have treated you in that way. I’m not used to people caring about my welfare that they would rather see me in bed than in a Zero Room.”

“Apology accepted.”

The faint noise of something bubbling was in the background.

“What’s that noise?” the Doctor asked.

“Oh, that’s soup. It’s not much. I went to the store and picked up a can. I hope you like chicken noodle.”

“I’m not even sure if I will like chicken noodle. But bring me a bowl, and put it on top of one of those table-thingies.”

“I will, Doctor.”

As Clara went back to her kitchen to tend to her chicken soup, the Doctor grabbed one of the blankets he threw off his body earlier and wrapped it around his body, hoping it would make Clara happy.


End file.
